The Balkans’ $111.6 Billion in Illicit Financial Outflows (2001-2010) Hemorrhages the Region’s Treasuries and Exposes Western Nations to Financial Risks
RIJEKA, Croatia / WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) and Adriatic Institute for Public Policy (AI) have formed a strategic partnership to launch a new joint study on the Balkans’ illicit financial outflows via crime, corruption and tax evasion for the years 1991 through 2011. The in-depth study led by the joint leadership team consisting of GFI President Raymond Baker, GFI Chief Economist Dev Kar, AI Chairman Natasha Srdoc and senior staff members will provide detailed reports for each of the Balkan nations covering the 21-year time span. The GFI-AI research will focus on illicit financial outflows for the Balkan nations including Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
Nearly US$200 Billion in Illicit Inflows to Greece from 2010-2011, fueling 2nd Largest Underground Economy in the OECD, GFI Director Tells German Magazine
From 2003-2011, Collective Illicit Financial Flows into and out of Greece Total US$509 Billion
WASHINGTON, DC – The Greek economy lost US$261 billion to crime, corruption, and tax evasion from 2003-2011, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) Director Raymond Baker told Der Spiegel in an exclusive interview (English version here) published yesterday in the German news magazine. Interestingly, while Greece experienced heavy illicit outflows for 6 of the first 7 years in that time series, Greece experienced massive inflows of illicit money in 2010 and 2011.
Greece Lost US$160 Billion to Illicit Financial Outflows over Past Decade
WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity (GFI) today called upon G20 leaders meeting this week in Los Cabos, Mexico to tackle the issue of tax haven secrecy and the illicit financial flows it facilitates as a necessary means to ensuring stability in the international financial system.
By Dev Kar, April 30, 2012
This morning, Larry Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Clinton and former top economic advisor to President Obama, wrote that European austerity is holding back economic growth, which is making their sovereign debt problem worse, both in individual countries passing austerity budgets and on a continent-wide basis.
By Dev Kar, June 20, 2011
Massive capital flight from the weaker Eurozone economies, not envisaged before the creation of the Eurozone, are putting further pressure on the union Cross-posted from the blog of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development. One...
Global Financial Integrity Lead Economist Dev Kar Examines the Role of Illicit Financial Flows in the Greek Debt Crisis. IFFs Cost Greece an Estimated US$160 Billion over the Last Decade
Greece has been in the news a lot lately and as we all know, it has not been good news. By all accounts, the austerity measures being imposed on the population as a condition for bailing Greece out of the financial crisis, is severe. As Walter Mead points out in a recent blog, investors are worried that the Greeks may not stand for them. He rightly notes that ordinary Greeks feel that the rich should pay the costs of the economic crisis and not them. They are right. According to an article in the Washington Post (Is austerity a Greek myth? By David Ignatius, May 3, 2010), Prime Minister Papandreou admits that corruption now robs the Greek economy by US$20-30 billion and “graft” (probably meaning bribery and kickbacks) accounts for some 8-12 percent of GDP. If, as I suspect, the Prime Minister is talking of graft and corruption as separate components, the size of Greece’s underground works out to some 18-21 percent of GDP. The result still falls short of the 25-30 percent of GDP estimated by most economists.
$160 billion lost to illegal capital flight in the last decade, according to analysis from Global Financial Integrity
WASHINGTON, DC—Global Financial Integrity lead economist, Dev Kar, has prepared an analysis on the Greek financial crisis for the blog of the Task Force on Financial Integrity & Economic Development in which he looks at the role illicit financial flows— Greece lost an estimated US$160 billion in unrecorded transfers through its balance of payments in the last decade—played leading up to the current financial crisis.
